Wasim Sajjad works with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.
After fleeing Taliban persecution in Afghanistan, many musicians found refuge in neighboring Pakistan. But now, amid a renewed deportation campaign by Islamabad, their future is once again uncertain -- and the survival of Afghan musical traditions hangs in the balance.
Afghan musicians were persecuted after the Taliban gained control of their country in 2021 and many fled to Pakistan. Those who remain there have found ways to continue their profession but now that Pakistan has launched a new campaign to deport Afghans, they are worried about their future.
Male passengers in Peshawar are often surprised to find Sana Khan at the wheel -- but she assures them she has a driver's license and is fully capable of driving her cab. She believes she's the Pakistani city's first woman cabbie, a job that makes her parents proud.
Supporters of the Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) opposition party headed from Peshawar for the party's planned nationwide rally in the capital, Islamabad, on November 24. Authorities banned gatherings in Islamabad and blocked city entries with shipping containers.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Pashtuns attended the beginning of a three-day Jirga or grand assembly on October 11 near Peshawar in northwest Pakistan. The meeting was called by the nonviolent PTM, or Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, to advocate for Pashtun rights.
Thousands attended funerals for three Pashtun activists killed by Pakistani police in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Mourners gathered on October 10, a day after police fired at members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).
In Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, there are persistent obstacles to equality for women and girls. For Huma Hashmat, a university student in Peshawar, greater autonomy starts with riding her motorbike, a non-traditional activity for women that's slowly gaining ground.
More than 128 million registered voters are eligible to cast their votes in parliamentary elections across Pakistan on February 8. RFE/RL correspondent Gul Ayaz reports from Peshawar.
Pakistan holds parliamentary elections on February 8 with the country in political and economic turmoil. RFE/RL correspondents Gul Ayaz and Wasim Sajjad report from Peshawar.
As Pakistan goes to the polls on February 8 to vote in parliamentary elections, RFE/RL spoke to one family from the city of Peshawar about their hopes for the future.
After a 1,000-kilometer march, hundreds of Baluch women and children are protesting in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to demand that the government reveal what's happened to their disappeared relatives and account for those killed extrajudicially during a two-decade rebellion.
Baluch women marched over 1,000 kilometers from Pakistan's province of Balochistan to the capital, Islamabad, protesting alleged extrajudicial killings and disappearances. Protest leader Mahrang Baloch spoke to RFE/RL on December 29 about what she called the "genocide" against the Baluch people.
Spesali Zazai is a women's rights activist who moved to Pakistan with her three daughters after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. RFE/RL visited Zazai and her two younger daughters, who say they don't want to return home.
Survivors recall a suicide bombing that killed at least 54 people and wounded 100 at a political rally in northwest Pakistan held by a religious group allied with the government. The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group claimed responsibility in a statement on July 31.
When Afsheen Javed arrives for training, she slips off her burqa and slips on the boxing gloves. She is the first female kickboxer in Bannu, a conservative city of around 1 million people in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
